Welcome back to Remember When—where I always go way back in time and share my tales of life in The Caldwells as a kid during the "Me Decade" and "Big '80s."

Last time, I took you on a virtual tour of video game haunts in The Caldwells during the early 1980s—the candy stores, pizzerias and more where we all became virtual yellow circles and Italian plumbers and gobbled dots and battled girlfriend-stealing apes.

While we were pumping machines full of quarters and building an industry 25 cents at a time, certain video gaming companies were trying to get into our homes.

Making a "Rec" of Space Invaders

I'm very fond noting that our area has historically been a good representation of suburban life in Anytown, USA. That means that in the 1970s and '80s, most casas in The Caldwells had what were affectionately were called "rec" rooms, the "rec" being short for recreation.

Now some of you may be thinking, rec what? so allow me to clear this up.

These were family spaces (also called "TV rooms" earlier on) that were designated places where everyone in the family and friends engaged in "recreation." Invariably, this "recreation" consisted of plopping oneself on the couch, successfully claiming the recently installed hard-wired cable box and watching TV on a "huge" 19- or 26-inch console with simulated wood grain. A little later in the lifespan of such a place, one would watch a movie via the newfangled VCR that sat atop the set.

Before, during and after this time, one might also play video games.

In its nascent years, home video gaming was pushed as a true family experience; Dad would battle you in the likes of Pong and its many imitators (the Coleco Tel-Star one was the best), and then mom would play the winner.

Pong and its variants soon gave way to "cartridge based" systems, like a Fairchild Channel F (awful) and the Atari Video Computer System. Then Intellivision hit, and Colecovision, among others.

As the games themselves veered away from multi-player contests (i.e. humans vs. each other) to one pitted against evil uprooted trees and other outer-worldly creatures (please see my previous Remember When? for more), it all started becoming less of a nuclear family bonding thing, and a kids (mostly boys at the time) thing.

While some parents banished video games from their homes' rec rooms (hi, mom), by 1982 most homes had consoles parked next to their communal TV sets (the DeCroces), with nests of wires running between them.

Now, suppose you were a kid or parent back then, and wanted to buy a cartridge for your Atari locally—where would you go? Before you enter your time machine, read on!

"Have You Played Atari Today?"

Back in the early '80s, I came down with the home strain of  "Pac-Man Fever" as much as the next kid. It reached the boiling point when Santa brought me an Atari 2600 for Christmas in 1982. My allowance and profits from my paper route would go toward amassing a cartridge library. (Later on, newspaper route money would help me upgrade to the woefully underrated Atari 5200.) 

Since I was already accustomed to heading on my bike to the local stores (again, see my last Remember When?) I usually wouldn't wait to go to the mall, I would buy most of my cartridges locally. 

Dig Dig in West Caldwell ...

"Down" in West Caldwell, Bradlees department store always had a bunch of (mostly Atari) games for sale. This was the best place to browse, uninterrupted, and at a huge, monolithic display case with a built-in monitor. By the way, these things have actually survived to an extent, and fetch a lot of money with collectors! The prices at Bradlees were right, too—I snagged football there for $9.99. That left enough change for one of their stale, rock-hard pretzels at the snack bar.

Two other places in West Caldwell sold home video game stuff; "Mr. Melody" and "Fourth Dimension Audio Video." Melody (as we called it) took a bold step into the video game age not only with an illegal copy of the Donkey Kong coin-op, but a fairly sleek cartridge section.

In the corner of the record section, vinyl and cassettes were hastily pushed aside to make way for some wood cabinets with plexiglass doors, displaying Atari 2600 (which is what the Video Computer System was renamed halfway through its lifespan) and the 5200. The games were way overpriced, and the selection outdated. I loved "Mr. Melody" overall, but the video gaming aspect left me cold. I'll write about this store in the future.

Diagonally behind the store and about two stores down from Radio Shack was Fourth Dimension Audio Video. This place was short lived, and very much a New York City style store, selling a bunch of things like phones, cameras and the like.

Though they have long disappeared (presumably to the fourth dimension), the store is remembered as the one where I purchased the home version of Defender for the Atari 2600—that "coming soon" promo sign they had in the window caught my eye on a trip to Cinema West.

... and Frogger Uptown

I now need to take you uptown to perhaps the coolest place to buy home video game stuff in all of The Caldwells: Grand Variety.

The long-standing staple on Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell was huge; there were toys, stationery, stuff for the home and in the back ... I never went in the back, but I'm sure it was grand. And variety-ous. Us Caldwells kids bought many a Smurf and Halloween costume there.

At Grand Variety, home video game systems, cartridges and accessories were in their own "department" just to the right of the store entrance. There sat a glass case with cartridges lined up like the history section at the library. One colorful spine after another was on display. Bright oranges, cool blues and lime green boxes in post-modern, variegated bold style fonts said "Indy 500," "Video Olympics" (not as good as it sounded), "Demon Attack," "Dig Dug" and many more.

GV not only dealt in the Atari 2600—it had a bunch of stuff for the Atari 5200, Colecovision, Intellivision, even the Bally Astrocade! Also available were a bunch of games for reader Sam Lin's system of choice, Magnavox's Odyssey 2, which has since become a favorite of mine.

Even more merchandise was behind the counter, behind more glass, spilling over into the store window.

As a side note, Packaging for video games stuff back then was a lot cooler than today—pre-computer artwork was great. Something like "Warlords" by Atari would depict an ancient warrior of undermined origin (probably Roseland) in the heat of battle. It was at least a lot more gripping than Mario and Luigi hopping over some fungi. Some systems had full-on late '70s and early '80s photos of kids and their parents on them, playing the prehistoric things.

Grand Variety presented it all, in grand style. Unfortunately, their prices were also pretty grand, but what's a boy on his bike to do? I made many a purchase there.

I don't think I've missed any other local retail outlets that carried at least cartridges, if not systems. You never know, though—perhaps you, the faithful reader will let me know. 

Allow me to jog your brain: 

1. Did Shop Rite ever sell home video game systems or cartridges? Like the recent Webkinz craze, I seem to recall some cartridges nestled in a counter space near the original pharmacy spot.

2. Going back a bit, did Medi-Mart peddle Mr. Do! and Friends?

The New Math: 1995 Goes Into 1983

In a fluke happenstance, in late 1995 while on duty delivering pizza for Aponte's, I was heading west down Bloomfield Avenue, when suddenly a thought popped into my head: What if Grand Variety still has some of those video game cartridges? At that point, I was already quite the retro-minded pack rat, with early '80s video gaming being a dominating fascination. I looked over at the store, and as fate would have it, there was a huge banner across the front that read, "going out of business." That calzone I'm bringing to a customer would have to wait! I pulled over and went inside.

I couldn't believe it: the video game section—the place where as a kid I stood and gawked, was mostly intact—even the high prices, albeit at a slight discount. The systems they played on were long abandoned, and most of the companies that made the games were out of business altogether. But here they were, games in unopened mint condition. I stood there in 1995, staring at 1983.

I made a deal with the owner guy (what was his name again?), and bought what amounted to a small treasure trove of games.

Points to ponder: Hey Remember When-ers, did you have a "rec" room in your house? Maybe even with a "conversation pit?" Did you scrounge as a young one to save up to buy an Atari cartridge? Please share your memories here!

Links

1. Here's an Atari commercial that sums up the whole "family in rec room playing video games" thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvec8Jvxq34

2. Here's the commercial for the Imagic cartridge "Demon Attack:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtF1Azv38E

*Both videos yield many similar ones in the side bar—I have to warn you, click these, and you may find an hour disappear before your very eyes!

The Remember When? Quiz!

Well, it's not so much of a quiz, but more of a question: Do you remember walking to school? Walking home? It was that ultimate buffer of kids' time between school and parents' weekday rule ... join me here next time for tales of walking home from school in The Caldwells!